Dihydroartemisinin downregulates vascular endothelial growth factor expression and induces apoptosis in chronic myeloid leukemia K562 cells

Dihydroartemisinin (DHA), a more water-soluble active metabolite of artemisinin derivatives, is safe and the most effective antimalarial analog of artemisinin. In the present investigation, we assessed the effect of DHA on vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) expression and apoptosis in chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) K562 cells. The results demonstrated that in addition to its antiproliferation effect on CML cells, DHA was also found to induce K562 cells apoptosis. The percentage of apoptotic cells was increased to 6.9 and 15.8% after being treated with 5 and 10 μmol/l DHA for 48 h, respectively (P<0.001). In order to analyze the effect of DHA on VEGF expression in K562 cells, we assessed the level of VEGF expression by western blot; detected the form of VEGF mRNA by RT-PCR and examined the level of VEGF secreted in conditioned media (CM) by ELISA assay. All these experiments suggested that DHA could inhibit the VEGF expression and secretion effectively in K562 cells, even at a lower concentration (2 μmol/l, P<0.05). Moreover, we further assessed the stimulating angiogenic activity of CM from K562 cells on CAM model. The angiogenic activity was decreased in response to the CM from K562 cells pretreated with DHA in a dose-dependent manner. Taken together, these results from our study together with its known low toxicity make it possible that DHA might present potential antileukemia effect as a treatment for CML therapy, or as an adjunct to standard chemotherapeutic regimens.